I never thought I'd be doing this, I'm leaving Shanghai. Well I knew I'd be leaving Shanghai, but the I didn't think I'd be leaving like this. Saturday night, I was walking near Nanjing Road, a huge tourist and scamming area. The road I was on wass nearly deserted, only a handful of beggars, street cleaners, and cabbies. Ahead of me was Nanjing road, and behind me was some other busy street. I saw a white guy come tearing down the street from Nanjing Road, running like his life depended on it. The street was fairly well lit, and the runner seeing another tourist, me, started yelling for help. I recognized the voice. It was a guy I had met earlier at another hostel. Unfortunately he also recognized me and shouted out my name. Then I saw what he's running from. Two big Chinese guys were running after him. They didn't look like cops. I stepped out of the way as the runner bolts down the road, and acted like a scared and apathetic tourist. The two thugs didn't pay much attention to me. The guy in the lead seeing me step out of the way, ignored me as he tried to catch up to the runner. The fatter guy who was farther behind just kept running. As the first thug was about to pass me, I did something stupid. I stepped back onto the sidewalk and punched him in the chest. Hard. With the force of my punch combined with his speed, the thug went down. I don't think he got up for a while. I took off running after the guy I knew. Finally we stop a few blocks away. Apparently he had fallen for a scam where a pretty young girl gets you to join her for tea. At least he said it was tea, I don't believe him. When the bill came for about 1300 yuan he could only pay a bit of it. So the manager and his employees had a talk with him. The two thugs I saw, were to escort him to a bank machine and get the money that way. My buddy saw his chance and bolted. By a 1 in a million chance he ran into me. So I laid low yesterday to consider my options. Several of the beggars got good looks at me that night, my moron buddy yelled out my name for everyone to hear. Fortunately it was only my first name. Unfortunately I stopped the nasty men from getting their money, and I kind of broke one of their thugs. I don't think they'll look to kindly on that. After careful consideration I've decided that leaving Shanghai will be the best option. So I'm going to be away for the rest of the day. If you don't hear from me by Wednesday, please think kindly of me. Edit: Just found out some new information on my travel plans, I'm going to be around for a few more hours.
That was actually the exact phrase I was thinking of as I was doing, and pretty much all day yesterday. I should be fine, though. I'm getting in a cab when I leave, and not getting out until I'm at my stop. Lots and lots of people everywhere after that.
Well I'm going in a few minutes. Just need to get over this huge case of nerves. I also need to get the deposit for my bed. I still have a week left. Thanks for the good wishes. I should post something tomorrow morning, when I reach a new hostel. Cheers PS: Don't worry too much, if anything happens, I wear steel toe shoes for a reason, and I have a sword in my backpack. Yes a sword, its blunted so its legal, but its still 3 feet of steel.
Ah, before I forget. The guy who caused all this trouble, was asking me for advice on what to do. After talking with my Dad (who helped me reach my own decision), I told him that he should leave the city. The last e-mail I got from him (I just know the guy, so I'm not meeting him again at least in this city) said he had shaved off his hair so they wouldn't know who he was, and was wondering if he should leave the city for another city in China, or the country. Interesting times.
Yeah... that was really effing strange. Though it's good to know that Domo is a Canadian samurai. I think I have heard something about a tea ceremony scam once before. Heh... turns out that being curious (and correct about what Con Man stood for) will do some good. Here's the description on Wikipedia: Beijing tea scam is a famous scam in and around Beijing. The artists (usually female and working in pairs) will approach tourists and try to make friends. After chatting, they will suggest a trip to see a tea ceremony, claiming that they have never been to one before. The tourist is never shown a menu, but assumes that this is how things are done in China. After the ceremony, the bill is presented to the tourist, charging upwards of £50 per head. The artists will then hand over their bills, and the tourists are obliged to follow suit.
What if he just forgot his wallet and the other guys were trying to give it to him? He might had really bad diarrhea and had to run. I hear that happens to tourists.
Same here. I think you were very brave and the other guy very stupid.... but scared! I hope you get to a safe place soon. best wishes mate.
****ting hell. D= You are so right to get the hell outta there. Good luck and all! You are better off not going near that idiot again in my opinion... Idiots like that bring bad (and often painful) things.
Be safe Domoviye. Be very safe. If you need to talk My door is always open. Just keep yourself safe. ~Raven.
Well I'm in Beijing now. I'm even in a hostel and everything. I had no problems, just a bit of nervousness. It turns out when you think you're being hunted you get really paranoid. Lets see I didn't tell anyone where I was going until the last minute, and no one knew how I was getting there. The very nice manager of the hostel, didn't know I was checking out until 3 minutes before I checked out. I spent several minutes on the roof top at various times making sure I didn't see anything suspicious on the streets below. And I walked to a nearby busy road to get a cab, instead of calling one to the hostel. And I had the map out the entire time while in the cab, to make sure the cabbie didn't drive me somewhere else. And I spent 6 hours in the soft (first class) lounge where you need to have a soft class ticket to actually enter, and you had to go through a metal detector and x-ray machine. And yeah this is going into a novel I'm writing. Except it will be from the perspective of the idiot who caused all the problems in the first place. Thanks for all the good wishes.
Yeah that type of scam is rampant in the major cities of China. That was actually one reason I was heading that way. I was bored, and I found a good way to entertain myself is to look like a befuddled tourist. As I walked alone (thats fairly important) around the tourist areas the scammers would swarm. So I'd talk and act really friendly until we got to the door, and then I'd suddenly remember an important meeting or phone call and take off leaving them confused and a little annoyed. But I'm definitely not a samurai. The best I could do would be using the sword like a bat. I just happen to be very protective of my body, and willing to use any and all means to protect it.
You know, pissing off Chinese scammers for fun doesn't seem like the safest thing to do. However, I guess you can conquer them with your sword-bat skills. Though they've probably just moved on to others scams by now. They'd lose a lot by just chasing you around the city.
Well thats why I was usually careful. Avoid the group scammers, avoid the guys that look like they could fight, don't do it constantly, and after running don't show up again in that area for at least an hour. It never really did anything to the scammers, just wasted their time. As for the potential scary men coming after me. There was a problem. My hostel and most of the ones that I could afford were within 20 minutes of the area, so they wouldn't of had to look hard. And I never planned on staying in Shanghai for long anyways. Unless I had found a job. Beijing with the Olympics coming up is a hotbed for English jobs, so I would have moved soon anyways.
To those bagging out the first guy who got scammed: Indeed, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do to shout out someones name when getting chased by Chinese thugs, but bear in mind, he was getting chased by chinese thugs; im sure the implications of a name weren't the first thing on his mind. However, it was indeed a very noble act you did. If only there mroe of you.
I left the day I started this thread. I'm in Beijing right now. A much better city. It doesn't rain as much, and I was actually cool this morning. And yeah I can't blame him for yelling for help. Although I would have prefered if he had just yelled for help rather than my name. Cheers
I'm glad you landed safely on your feet. Maybe you should adopt a "public" name that differs from the one on your passport and lodgings. I go to a deli in the area where they take your first name and call it out when your order is ready. Do you have ANY idea how many Daves there are? So my name, whenever I'm at the deli, is Clyde.
